House Sold Officially -- New House Almost Done

We have officially sold our house -- closing was this afternoon -- we are now homeless for 3-4 weeks.  :)  We're actually renting back from our buyers for the next month, so we're not literally homeless, but we're not home-owners at the moment.  Our new house only has a few small items still to be done, along with the final cleanups, and we'll close on it on October 20 and have 9-10 days to move our stuff.  Its a great feeling to have it all work out -- and not have to move twice and rent an apartment if our house had sold too fast -- or to have two payments if it hadn't sold.

I love the internet!  We sold our house ourselves -- without a selling agent.  All we did was stick up a sign and some flyers, put some small pointer signs up at the corners on the weekends, list ourselves on the MLS listings ($360), and put up a website ($8).  I know for a fact that the website made a difference -- the buyers we're looking at a house just like ours in our subdivision, saw ours when leaving and pulled the flyer and looked at our website.  They were ready to make an offer on the other house the next day, but our website's photos and extra information made them delay and look at ours instead.  We were not home when they came by, and without the site with more photos and details than my flyers they would not have bothered trying further to get in contact with us.

I love the internet!  I saved $500 on my new refridgerator by price-shopping and model comparisons -- and Sears lost my business since they were unwilling to deal in this new world.  I also saved another $500 on some new living room furniture through price-shopping and model comparisons -- and Richs/Macys lost my business since they were unwilling to deal in this new world.  And I could go on and on -- a couple of years ago I got a $600 Treo for $150 for instance -- and yet some people were still shopping in these old stores that just don't get it -- but for how much longer?

4 Comments

  • Paul,



    Who took care of your closing? I'm looking to sell my home next year, and I am wondering about all the formalities of closing. Did you still have to pay the Buying Broker 3%?



    Kevin

  • The buyer did have an agent -- and we did agree to that 3%, but that still saved us from having to pay 7% if we also had an agent (and 5% if we had an agent and the buyer did not). The buyer's agent had a closing lawyer which was fine with us, but I had called around and knew I could easily get one if a buyer came that did not have an agent to do such work. The closing lawyer mostly represents the lender anyhow, so I don't see it as an issue.

  • That is great news... I've been thinking of doing the same thing myself (on the house). Where did you get a website for a flat $8? Enjoy the new house!

  • I meant the domain was $8 (GoDaddy). I already had the hosting account with WebHost4Life, so the rest of the setup was just an evening of making a nice looking page and hooking up the domain. We made a nice one-page flier with the hilites and one nice external photo, and then mentioned the website on both the sign and the flier. Then those that wanted more details or photos could easily go check out the website for the rest. One thing worth noting is that we received very few calls with this approach -- which I think is what you want. In other words, I didn't waste time fielding lots of calls with silly questions, since they were already answered elsewhere. Instead, nearly every caller we had was pretty seriously interested. My wife was very troubled by this lack of calls after a while, since her friends saling their houses were getting so many more calls. But I don't want a lot of calls -- I just want a few calls and one buyer -- but its something you have to be prepared for since it can make you wonder. Finally, although most everyone had a buyer's agent, I do not think there was ever a prospect brought to us by an agent! In other words, in every case (or almost every case anyhow), the potential buyer found our house on their own, and then either they or their agent contacted us. So selling it on your own will also eliminate a lot of traffic that you might want to have, but in the end, if you're patient, you'll get someone that really "wants" your house, and that's good.

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